Joking aside, a big part of what's going on right now is likely related to housing. Housing in Canada has been insane for many years, but has gotten particularly insane in the last five or so. During the pandemic, the price of a single family home across the country was over $800,000. Now that is in canuckistani kopecs, but even in freedom dollars that's a lot of money to live in the hinterlands. Toronto's been over a million for many years, and Vancouver has been over 2 million for many years. By the time you start talking about that kind of money, it doesn't matter whether you're talking kopecs or freedom bucks.
So another thing to understand about Canada is that mortgage interest terms are extremely short. In the US you can get a 30 year mortgage with a fixed rate, in Canada and overwhelming majority of mortgages are 5-years or less.
So if you go back 5 years, interest rates were quite low. The lowest interest rates ever were four years ago during the peak of covid. So you have these people who bought million dollar houses with a 5-year fixed or 5 year variable rate mortgage, and now they need to renew what was 2% at 5%. Those mortgages are rolling over. When you're dealing with such a large mortgage increasing in interest rates that much, suddenly people just can't afford it anymore.
It will be really bad over the next 2 years, because by then 92% of all mortgages will have flipped over, a lot of variable rate mortgages that had 100 year amortization to keep the payments manageable will be reset back to acceptable amortizations, and the process of people using up their credit to stay afloat which means a lot of people will take some time to reach the end point.
I really think this is just beginning.
So another thing to understand about Canada is that mortgage interest terms are extremely short. In the US you can get a 30 year mortgage with a fixed rate, in Canada and overwhelming majority of mortgages are 5-years or less.
So if you go back 5 years, interest rates were quite low. The lowest interest rates ever were four years ago during the peak of covid. So you have these people who bought million dollar houses with a 5-year fixed or 5 year variable rate mortgage, and now they need to renew what was 2% at 5%. Those mortgages are rolling over. When you're dealing with such a large mortgage increasing in interest rates that much, suddenly people just can't afford it anymore.
It will be really bad over the next 2 years, because by then 92% of all mortgages will have flipped over, a lot of variable rate mortgages that had 100 year amortization to keep the payments manageable will be reset back to acceptable amortizations, and the process of people using up their credit to stay afloat which means a lot of people will take some time to reach the end point.
I really think this is just beginning.
Excuse me, those ain't your bugs.
You can eat all the electricity that solar panels make at midnight on the first day of winter.
You can eat all the electricity that solar panels make at midnight on the first day of winter.
I remember seeing some idiot ranting "use your free speech responsibly or it will be taken away"
If there's a threat hanging over your speech at all times if you don't say the right things, then it isn't free. Freedom is the freedom to use your freedom in ways people might totally disagree with without consequences. If you're free, you're free to go full floridaman and say whatever you want without consequences except the ones that naturally come a out from saying stupid stuff all the time.
If there's a threat hanging over your speech at all times if you don't say the right things, then it isn't free. Freedom is the freedom to use your freedom in ways people might totally disagree with without consequences. If you're free, you're free to go full floridaman and say whatever you want without consequences except the ones that naturally come a out from saying stupid stuff all the time.
Let's achieve lower prices by forcing supermarkets to absorb losses. Smart.
Look, I've been poor, You sitting there getting rung up with a case of kraft dinner and you're 15 cents short and you don't know exactly how you're gonna eat this week since that's the cheapest calories you can think of. I get it.
But there's other ways to get food that don't end up making the problem worse for everyone else...
Look, I've been poor, You sitting there getting rung up with a case of kraft dinner and you're 15 cents short and you don't know exactly how you're gonna eat this week since that's the cheapest calories you can think of. I get it.
But there's other ways to get food that don't end up making the problem worse for everyone else...
But most importantly, our individual human brains.
Biggest problem is letting others tell you what you think and believe.
"You want to be part of the group, don't you? You are part of the group because you believe A, the group also believes B, therefore you must believe B"
Not only could you believe A but not B, but you could also believe C that seems entirely at odds with both A and B independently and individually. Humans are like that. But sometimes it's because we've only been led to believe that c is at odds with a or b or both.
Biggest problem is letting others tell you what you think and believe.
"You want to be part of the group, don't you? You are part of the group because you believe A, the group also believes B, therefore you must believe B"
Not only could you believe A but not B, but you could also believe C that seems entirely at odds with both A and B independently and individually. Humans are like that. But sometimes it's because we've only been led to believe that c is at odds with a or b or both.
One danger at the moment is that authoritarians are great at using anything to support authoritarianism, and every cause you can imagine can, will, and is being used by people in some corners to justify more authoritarian control over individual people's lives.
For, against, it doesn't really matter because it's all just a tool used by someone who wants a thing, not ends in and of themselves.
If you think you're one of the good guys and your cause can't be used to justify authoritarian control of others, either you are blind to it, or your cause isn't powerful enough yet. If it's something on the upswing, give it 20 years.
For, against, it doesn't really matter because it's all just a tool used by someone who wants a thing, not ends in and of themselves.
If you think you're one of the good guys and your cause can't be used to justify authoritarian control of others, either you are blind to it, or your cause isn't powerful enough yet. If it's something on the upswing, give it 20 years.
The exact same image could have ended much differently, talking about how great all these things are. I guess that's the danger: These people who come up with this stuff have rooms full of very smart consultants who figure out the most politically acceptable way of describing a thing so we're all cheering as they put our head in the guillotine.
I hope poilievre follows through when his party is elected in a landslide and actually divests Canada from the CCPBC. Private media production punches way above its weight in Canada, and the CCPBC punches insanely below its weight.
New business model: nothing as a service NaaS
Here's the way it works: you don't pay any companies rent for anything you do on your computers.
You might ask: "how are other companies supposed to make money that way?" The answer is simple: not your problem.
Here's the way it works: you don't pay any companies rent for anything you do on your computers.
You might ask: "how are other companies supposed to make money that way?" The answer is simple: not your problem.
Playing with jellyfin tonight. I've got it fully set up pulling data automatically from my NAS (if said NAS was just a bit newer then it would support jellyfin natively, but no such luck)
First impression compared to plex is that it's much more focused, and I like that. Plex seems to be trying to sell me an entire ecosystem, and my data is just peripheral. By contrast, jellyfin has my libraries of content and my content front and center.
Put more simply, with plex I feel like I need to dig to find my files because there's a bunch of stuff plex intends to sell.
seems to do chromecast ok too.
First impression compared to plex is that it's much more focused, and I like that. Plex seems to be trying to sell me an entire ecosystem, and my data is just peripheral. By contrast, jellyfin has my libraries of content and my content front and center.
Put more simply, with plex I feel like I need to dig to find my files because there's a bunch of stuff plex intends to sell.
seems to do chromecast ok too.
It just occurred to me that I'm using software written by people working for porn sites then forked by a vegan feminist.
The universe has a sense of humor...
The universe has a sense of humor...
Imagine you're a poor person who got charged with a serious crime but you definitely didn't do it. You're like "It's fine, I know I wasn't there and there's video evidence, I'll be back home soon" and then your public defender walks in...
Some of my crypto bros are pretty cool, but this is still totally true.
A "currency" has 3 functions: it's a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. Good luck with that. "How much for that loaf of bread?" "0.00002 bitcoins. Wait, 0.00004 bitcoins. Wait, 0.00006 bitcoins. wait, 0.00001 bitcoins."
A "currency" has 3 functions: it's a store of value, a medium of exchange, and a unit of account. Good luck with that. "How much for that loaf of bread?" "0.00002 bitcoins. Wait, 0.00004 bitcoins. Wait, 0.00006 bitcoins. wait, 0.00001 bitcoins."
Reminds me of when some new bright eyed bushy tailed twitter or reddit user comes to the fediverse and starts threatening people on freeside.
"You better be careful, or only people who are chill enough to see what you have to say and not immediately reach for the block or defederate button will talk to you!"
oh no whatever will i do
"You better be careful, or only people who are chill enough to see what you have to say and not immediately reach for the block or defederate button will talk to you!"
oh no whatever will i do
"I spent 70k to take harry potter class"
5 years later
"Some guy who has been shovelling shit all his life should pay my student loans off"
Canadian healthcare for such people.
5 years later
"Some guy who has been shovelling shit all his life should pay my student loans off"
Canadian healthcare for such people.
I really like the concept in this article that the powers that be have no real attachment to any particular ideology, they're just tools to be used and discarded once they lose their usefulness.
It's like.... They're using the left, and it's terrible, but they'll use the right too, and it won't be better because whatever ideology they use it's actually about controlling people using whatever they can in the moment.
The entirety of people left of center are not completely insane, but it's more useful to use the insane nutjobs for 2 phase: first using them and their cultural power to dominate society, and once they've used up the last drop of their power, they'll be cast aside and the hatred towards them will be used as the next lever to dominate society and move onto the next thing. If that isn't exactly what we saw happening in the last cycle I don't know what is.
It's like.... They're using the left, and it's terrible, but they'll use the right too, and it won't be better because whatever ideology they use it's actually about controlling people using whatever they can in the moment.
The entirety of people left of center are not completely insane, but it's more useful to use the insane nutjobs for 2 phase: first using them and their cultural power to dominate society, and once they've used up the last drop of their power, they'll be cast aside and the hatred towards them will be used as the next lever to dominate society and move onto the next thing. If that isn't exactly what we saw happening in the last cycle I don't know what is.
Cars seem to be built for lawmakers, not for customers.
I want a car that's cheap and effective. I don't need creature comforts if it means a vehicle that can cost $10,000 costs $100,000. But I don't get a choice to buy that cheap but effective vehicle because some 90 year old who has never made a car payment because they just buy new cars with bribe money says I don't actually want that.
I want a car that's cheap and effective. I don't need creature comforts if it means a vehicle that can cost $10,000 costs $100,000. But I don't get a choice to buy that cheap but effective vehicle because some 90 year old who has never made a car payment because they just buy new cars with bribe money says I don't actually want that.